Saturday, September 18, 2010

Georgia's locker room stayed closed for longer than usual after the game. After most of the team was excused, the players and coaches requested by the media stayed in the room, and it didn't open again for about another 10 minutes.

When we did get in, we encountered a team clearly refocusing its goals. After the loss to South Carolina, players maintained that their goals were still ahead of them, a one-loss team could still win the SEC East, etc. But a second straight loss seemed to hit home that the road ahead had changed.

"As of right now, our focus needs to be on winning a conference game," head coach Mark Richt said.

More quick takes before I delve into writing my game story:

- Richt on the comeback: "They weren't willing to give in. And that's the sign of a team that's got something to it."

- Richt also addressed what was essentially the where-do-we-go-from-here question:

“I really believe you just go back to work,” Richt said. “It’s just a real healthy thing. There’ll be moments for everybody over this weekend where we’ll be in pain mentally about it. But the best medicine we have is gathering back up on Monday, watching the film, getting rid of that taste and getting ready for the next opponent.”

- Todd Grantham blamed the final touchdown on a coverage breakdown, which he called the "theme of the day."

“You can’t say it’s one play," he said. "I think if you look at the game … I thought we attacked blockers better up front. I thought we were more physical up front. Then I thought we would play good, then we would give up an explosive play.”

- Aaron Murray remains a relentlessly positive person. This was how he summed up the offense's day:

“We started off fine. We had a touchdown the first drive. We had some good drives, I felt. We were moving the ball, we just weren’t finishing then. In the second drive we started slow then we were finishing drives like we were supposed to. We just didn’t in the end. We had our sparks in and out throughout the day.”

- Richt was asked if he had any comment on A.J. Green's suspension being upheld on appeal.

"No, I don't," he said, then added: "He’s a good kid. He’s a really good kid. A good person.”

- Richt said right guard Chris Davis didn't play because he was banged up, and also because he was the team's only backup center, and they wanted him available in case something happened to starter Ben Jones. (A cynic might say that Richt was covering for the fact that Davis was simply benched.)

- Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo addressed the lack of throws to the tight ends by saying it was the result of other teams stacking the box more.

"We’re getting more one-on-one coverage outside, and more people on top of the tight end,” Bobo said.

(We'll have more from Bobo on the overall offensive game in Sunday's stories.)

shortcomings like having your team rally by 14 points in the fourth quarter without its best player? fire richt? seriously? and replace him with whom? Saban? That's a joke. New QB, new defense, one of the best offensive players in the country on the sideline. We lost, but blaming it entirely on Richt is moronic.

Same old story. The offense doesn't utilize all the weapons. Way too long of WR routes on short 3rd down. TEs should be a mismatch on the LBers. We can blame Bobo all we want, its still Richt's offense.Defense was much better today. We all knew that changing to a 3-4would result in mistakes.

Is Kirby Smart ready to be a head coach. Think Will Muschamp would leave Texas?

The regression continues. McGarity needs to clean house. Look at what Saban has done in LESS THAN HALF THE TIME CMR HAS BEEN AT UGA. The situation is now unacceptable. You CMR apologists (Richmond_dawg) are morons. We do less and less every year with top 10 talent.

Robert, you're an idiot. Richmond_dawg is being entirely reasonable about the situation. You can go troll somewhere else, like the AJC maybe.

I think a lot of this game was lost on the offensive and defensive lines. Apparently our O-line lost the ability to pass-block and once again the run-blocking was pretty pathetic. D-line rarely got any pressure on Mallet (1 sack?). Defensive backs can only cover receivers for so long. We needed more pressure.

Is Richt as good of a coach as Saban? No, not even close. But is there any college coach as good as Saban? No. Robert, if you think you can convince Saban to leave Alabama and come coach at Georgia, be my guest to try. Firing Richt at the end of this season would be short-sighted and would only result in at least 3-4 more years of mediocrity while the new coach installed his system and recruited his players.

Fire richt? Are you guys serious? Do you know how far that would set us back? Recruiting would be terrible for years! Guys like crowell are gonna hear bitch fans like you guys and not want to come to ga! Big time recruits go to bad or mediocre teams all the time! Look at lattimore! Many great recruits stay in state! Ga fans in the last couple of years have sounded like huge bitches! I will always stand by my team ga and try to say positive things as much as possible. Guys like crowell Rome and Ray drew are on the net and see what you guys are saying and I'm sure there questioning the loyalty of the fan base here!

Successful players want to be around succesful programs. This situation falls on Mark Richt,not something or someone else.You forget Mark Richt has had five years to correct the problem. It was his mistake letting Van Gorder go and hasn't won a championship since. It's time for a change. LSU isn't going to waste time pining over the head coach. You either win or you go. Mark Richt has spent huge amounts of money on new coaching and receives $2.8 million in salary plus bonus and endorsements. For what?The Mark Richt Apologists like you put hime ahead of the Dawg Nation. What about the Dawg Nations integrity and character?UGA has the second largest football budget in the NCAA and should settle for nothing less that the best. LSU is rumored to be interested in Muschamp. What's UGA doing? Oh....Bob Stoops(Oklahoma) went 8-5 last year like Mark Richt and is effecting a turnaround as we speak. The right coach and staff can do it.Don't be so afraid and timid. You apologists will lie and deceive to protect Richt.For example all the bogus hype about the highly vaunted offensive line which is obviously "Bogus".The 90 wins/10 win average crap is irrelevant in a 14 game season,so don't go there. That's just an old Bowden trick.

Schlagdawg, the mere fact that Richmond is being reasonable does not make him right. It is entirely possible to be reasonable about almost any situation or set of circumstances. I am not trolling, merely being reasonable when looking at the hand that is being dealt throughout this miserable season by Richt and his inept crew, for whom he his ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE.

I don't want Saban, just a coach who can win. CMR's tenure started with so much promise, but, alas, 10 YEARS LATER AND NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. I like an occasional SEC championship or BCS bowl as much as te next, but come on, we have plateaued under CMR.

And really, 3-4 more years while he "installs this new system????" With what, the 3 star recruits we will inevitably recruit with such terrible results. What has Saban done in three years? Oh yeah installed a system, fielded top-3 recruit classes, and won a NC. We deserve a coach that can produce similar results in LESS THAN 10 YEARS!

Rick I don't mean stay quiet all the rime and never say anything negative. I just don't think everything should be negative. It's not always that bad! If we fire richt I think it would get that bad. Ga fans just seem to constantly be saying fire this coach fire that coach. We have who have door right now. Kids these days are on the net a lot and it just worries me that all these recruits see all this ga bashing from there own fans. I follow many different pro and college teams and ga fans seem to be the worst about complaining! I know it just shows they care but try to be a little more positive! Not everything is always that bad!

I am loyal to the red and black.To that big G on the helmet. The bell ringing after a win. GO DAWGS. I will NOT be loyal to anyone who I think is a detriment to Georgia.

This team under Richt's leadership has underperformed the past 3 seasons. The lack of discipline is apparent from the penalties and off field arrests. The culture of the team is set by the head coach. It is starting to look like its time for a culture change.

But it is that bad. Quit being so blind! Have you watched the last two games (or any games since 2007 when we were lucky to be able to ride Knowshon's and Staffords talent to a BCS win)? Look at what is happening to our Dawgs! REGRESSION!

Robert look at bear Bryant or Vince dooleys career! Do you think they were always winning Ten plus games and in contention for the national title? I could be wrong but doesn't richt have the best winning percentage in ga history? A couple of bad seasons and he's gone? I agree bobo should not be coaching our offense but richt is a different story. It's easy to look at Alabama and say we could do that but do you really think if we fire richt and hire one of those guys we would be better off? Our problem is coordinators. Grantham is looking good now we just need to get the best offensive coordinator we can afford.

We are severely lacking talented football players, and when they are coupled with a pea brain play caller the results are about 6-6. We have no game changer without AJ. UGA fans are desperate for something to cheer for as Sanford was rocking during the comeback which made me proud to be a dawg. We deserve better from our team and if we don't demand it then it will never come.

Perhaps the best OC in the country could work wonders. Heck, couldn't get much worse.

However, things should never have come to this point. Why should a program like UGA have a 2-3 year rebuilding period in the middle of a 10-win average coach's career? Perhaps that is a product of....bad coaching? Letting your program get to this point (6 win season?) is poor head coaching. Coordinators are a product of head coaches, and CMR has appointed some very bad ones.

Richt might have the best winning percentage in UGA history but its not good enough for me. I want National Titles. There have been 5 SEC team win title since Richt has been at UGA LSU(2), Florida (2), and Alabama. This is what I use to compare UGA to. It has not been good enough!

Head-Coach-In-Waiting at Texas...not that great. Who knows when Mack will retire. Plus, UGA is his alma mater. Do you not understand allegiances? Did you attend the Kirby Smart School of Selfishness? Making $900,000 per year, best for a coordinator, but wave $3 million in Muschamps face and see what happens.

Anybody have Ray Goff's number or Jim Donnan's - you fire CMR guys need to take a deep breath.

Now I'm not saying everything is rosy in Athens but it is not as bad as many of you think. We desperately need changes on the offensive side of the ball. Whether it is OC or the coaches our OC has working under him but something is terribly wrong with our offense.

This AJ is missing is a smoke screen. Bama lost its HT RB and didn't miss a beat. We have a former RB coaching WR's and what a former WR coaching RB's WTF is that all about.

Could be CMR wants to help assistant coaches gain experience but at what cost.

Bobo was able to coach great players to good Offensive production but take away the AJ, Knowson Staff Mo Mass etc and he's not capible of changing the plan to make it better for the team without the Superstars. The lack of any safety value for the whole game just caused AM to get killed. The announcers kept saying it over and over AM had no one to dump it off to. If WR's were covered he was left to his own devices.

Ok I just went by the college reference site to check on what I said about richts winning percentage and I was right. Ga is going through it's best ten year period ever right now! I am the biggest ga fan I know and I won't settle for what we are now but I don't think that it will always be like this. Also we as ga fans might view ga as having a little better history than we actually do. Talking of firing one of the most successful coaches in college history after losing to two ranked sec teams just seems a little stupid to me.

Should Richt come under strict scrutiny? Yes. Are there serious questions about the current state of our program? Definitely. But is it remotely rational to advocate firing Richt after 3 games into the season? I say no, but, you're entitled to your own opinion. We have no chance to get to the SEC championship this year, but we can still have a good season (see 2007). I might be all for firing Richt at the end of the season, but it is premature to jump ship already.

Robert do you expect us to always win ten plus games and never have bad seasons? Every team without exception has gone through tough times. Richt has ga in a place where 8 wins is a bad season! No matter who you are you will not always be good or great! We cannot lose two games to two pretty good ranked teams and act like the season is over and this is the worst team ever! I am not saying that I accept failure I just think everyone is kinda overreacting!

Bobo called the same exact play 11 times today...it resulted in positive gain twice, there is your "predictability." I like Richt, maybe Bobo is the problem...if so let Richt start calling the plays again. It WAS during that period that we were competing in SEC championships & steadily feared & ranked.

For all you so called fans who want richt gone go to the ad with your check books and start writing the checks to get him out of here. Then go get the guy you want and get the checkbooks out again. Then keep bitching when we are medicore for the next 5 years. If y'all know so much about football quit blaming the coaches they can only coach so much. Players have to start executing at some point. Thanks now y'all can start bitching at me because I back the dawgs win or lose. Yes I'm pissed we lost but I am also know that I'm being real about it. Hold players accountable Keep the bitching up

MOST OF YALL RAINY DAY DAWG FANS lNEED TO SUPPORT THIS TEAM. PLAYERS AND COACHES. ITS NOT LIKE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LINING UP IN ATHENS FOR THE UGA JOB. HOW MANY HAVE TURNED UGA DOWN SINCE DOOLEY. WE GOT ONE OF THE BEST HEAD COACHES IN THE COUNTRY IMO. STUFF HAPPENS AND THIS WILL TURN. RECRUITS NEED TO FEEL LIKE THE FANS LOVE THE DAWGS NO MATTER WHAT. LOSING HURTS BUT WE WILL GET BACK ON TOP. RIGHT NOW THEY NEED REAL DAWG FANS TO GET BEHIND THEM. GO DAWGS!!!

I don't believe CMR should go. I think the players played well with a few exeptions. The defense is still growing and they adjust pretty well during a game. I think Bobo needs to go. Since he became the O coor. the offense has looked horrible. If he finishes the season with the team, CMR needs to go with him. During CMR first 6 years when he was calling the plays, our offense was envied by all. I love the Dawgs, but if we keep it up I think we are looking at a 1-3 or 1-4 start and maybe if we are lucky we can play a sun belt team in a bowl.

What has been so disappointing over the last 3 seasons is the overall lack of killer instinct on this team. There were too many times today where we either lined up without enough men on the field, or didn't have the punt return team ready, or defenders and receivers just looked lost. When it comes to discipline this team has none. When there are no serious consequences for the off-field problems, how can players expect there to be any consequences for poor performance on the field? Losing hurts, but what hurts more is losing without ever really being in the game. It's time for CMR to start teaching some tough love.

I'm just going to stop reading any post that talks about firing richt. One, it makes UGA fans look bad. Two, it's a waste of everyones time, and just makes people pissy. I'm not happy about everything that's going on, but nothing is going to happen untill after this season, which I doubt anything will happen anyway. My feeling is that most of you will be sitting here at the end of theseason excited to see what ctg and rs sophomore am will have in store for next year, following a good finish to this season.

How many 8-5, 7-6, 6-6 seasons do you give a coach that won 90 games in his first nine years? The problem is not this season. The problem is the last few seasons and the gradual erosion of the program. I seem to remember even when we were winning SEC championships we were know as Field Goal U. Who was running the O then?

i've seen enough of the play action pass with out the threat of a running game. play action passes only work when you have a physical team that dictates the pace of the game and has an attitude that they can run the ball on anybody...you need 2 yards we'll get you 3 and a half. thats when you find success in the play action passing game...thats the attitude we had with musa smith at TB...this team does have that kind of history to demand respect. where has the toss sweep gone? thats what UGA football has been built on for decades! thats where the late season success came from last year in the running game...this year it is a non existent piece of the game plan...

bobo's formula for success: 1st down and 10- play action pass (incomplete)+ 2nd down delayed draw for short gain + predictable 3rd down passing situation with a play call that has no receiver running a route to the 1st down marker = 3 and out!

Oh yeah, Defensive Coordinators know when we bring in Durham and Troupe as the two WR that it is going to be a run...quit being so predictable with the personel packages and play calling.

I thought I felt bad after watching a losing game but after reading Lawson Bailey, Rick, and other "fans" on here I feel like a ship's captain watching rats abondon ship. Yes, we need to tighten a lot of loose ends and get back to winning football. Getting rid of a damn good coach is a stupid refrain sung by hip-shooting "coaches" who have never earned a dime in the business. Yes, you have a right to be entertained but you don't know s### from shinola about coaching. I can only hope that true fans will rally around the dawgs and let's have a good remaining season. All you fair weather fans can shove it..GO DAWGS!!!

i still believe in CMR. I think too many people expected this defense to turn around quicker than it has. Understand, this is a completely re-worked system with all new reads and schemes. Unfortunately that doesn't explain the lack of tacking and wrapping up the ball carrier.

Yeah offense isn't utilizing the weapons. Yeah we have guys i've heard nothing but great things about that haven't materialized (marlon brown anyone)

and stop saying this is because AJ is out. AJ isn't out there not tackling on defense, and a single player doesn't change the game. I don't care how often he might draw double coverage or a safety over the top to free up an under route. Bobo will still be sending everyone on 20 yard post routes on 3rd and 3.

Bottom line - this team has a swagger that it hasn't earned. A lot of these guys need to be humbled and get back to work, and if an 0-2 start in SEC play doesn't do it, this season will get a lot worse before the end.

After reading all the posts I think we can all agree on this BOTTOM LINE...

Yes Coach Richt is a darn good coach and has been great for us in Athens... what I think is frustrating is that we feel like is loyalty is to his coaches over his players... Coach Bobo has long been known as a detriment to the team, his offensive play calling is horrid and if you dig deeper even his own players dont like him very much ("hes too political"). As bulldog faithful we think our player (who play their hearts out every game) deserve to be represented by coaches who will do the same for them... The bottom line then becomes making sure Coach Richt gets the message, we need him to let Bobo go, we want to see his passion for the players.... Im not saying he doesnt love his boys or that he isnt passionate, but I am saying he seems to have a blind allegiance to his staff that needs to be corrected... PERIOD

I personally want to keep Richt at helm but I also want to see those changes happen (I understand you cant fire an offensive coordinator mid-season but you can take over play calling responsibilities and start the search for what should be a much better coordinator...)

From a scheme perspective the defense actually looked pretty darn good during the sc game... Did we make fundamental mistakes, yes, but those can be corrected... As the season progresses Im confident our defense will pick up...

The problem is our offense, the defense continues to give our offense great chances late in the game that we can never capitalize on... We had the ball in the redzone against sc to tie it and we had the ball near midfield with minutes left to win it in this one... if the offense could have muddled up 15 yards we would have beat Arkansas...

Lol, I looove the MR apologists that say that MR should get a pass because the team has a new QB and new Def. Coord...

Umm, so it's not MR's fault that he decided it was a good idea to play Cox all last year so that he would be going into this year with a green starter? It wasn't MR that promoted Willie and then kept him around for years of mediocrity until he finally had to replace him?

Support MR by all means if that's your thing, but don't give him a pass for things that are his own damn fault.

And btw, how many years have we been hearing: coaches can coach all they want but players have to execute"? At some point don't you HAVE to blame the coaches? Either for bringing in idiots that can't learn or not teaching them properly?

Not giving Coaches a pass...however they don't play the game. It's as simple as our All American punter showing up. After the defense and penalties pinned Arkansas deep on their next to last drive...their punter flipped the field making GA and it's freshman QB move 30 yards instead of 15 to set up Walsh. When GA punted back the Dawgs All American didn't pin Arkansas back...instead gave them every reason to be aggressive with a poor punt...an extra 15 yards would have meant overtime at least. Butler was a no show at South Carolina and not much better at home vs Arkansas.

A lot of the fans calling for Richt to go are saying because of 6-6 seasons. Call me when he has one. While things don't look great right now the schedule eases up the next few weeks, a few hurt guys will come back and AJ will be catching the ball after one more week. At the beggining of the 2007 season it looked a lot like we do now but we managed to finish #2 in the country (I know Richt sucks for not being #1 worst coach ever for that finish, how could he possibly be that bad). Not saying we get there this year but I would be very surprised if there is not a turn around and we don't get to ten wins this season. If we do finish 6-6 then yes there needs to be a serious look at the program and Richt should be worried about his job, but having played 2 of the best 4 teams we will play this year I expect a turn around and by the end of the season people will be talking about us playing some of the best football around. I could be wrong on this but no one can claim that Richt hasn't done it before.

I'm not upset that we lost, but by HOW we lost. We gave up 3 touchdowns because of blown coverage. The last one hurt bad. I really felt our secondary was going to be better this year, but so far I'm not seeing it. Our offensive line was supposed to be the best in the country, yet Murray was sacked 5 times yesterday and the running game is almost nonexistent. Special teams were supposed to be a big strength for this young team, but so far they've been a dud. The one bright spot I'm seeing is the play of Aaron Murray - this kid will be good, if we block for him and actually exploit his athleticism. I'm not giving up on these kids or our coaches. There's still a lot to play for - a January 1st bowl is not out of the picture if this team can get its act together.

Search Top Blogs...

Subscribe To

My Latest Tweets

Twitter Updates

About the Author

Seth Emerson has been covering the SEC and Georgia (on and off) since 2002. He worked at the Albany Herald from 2002-05, then spent five years at The State in Columbia, S.C., covering South Carolina. He returned to Athens in August of 2010, only to find that David Pollack and David Greene were no longer playing for the Bulldogs. Adjustments were made.

Emerson is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Maryland in 1998 with a degree in journalism and a minor in getting lost on the way to practically everywhere. Then he spent four years at The Washington Post, covering small colleges, a couple NCAA basketball tournaments, and on one glorious day, was yelled at by Tony Kornheiser. It was probably at The Post that he also learned to write in the third person.

These days he lives in Athens with his beloved and somewhat wimpy dog, Archie. Together they fight crime at night in northeast Georgia, except on nights there is no crime, in which case they sit at home, sip on white wine and watch reruns of "Mad Men."